Arenanet's Chris Whiteside appeared on IGN's up at noon webshow to discuss Guild Wars 2, the launch, the current state of it, and the goals for the future. You can check it out on their official website.

I don't main Ranger or Necro, but to compare complaints about pet AI to complaints about not being able to dual-wield greatswords is outright ridiculous. Pet AI is very very bad and anyone complaining about it is helping the game. Whiteside shot it down like it was nothing.

I don't main Ranger or Necro, but to compare complaints about pet AI to complaints about not being able to dual-wield greatswords is outright ridiculous. Pet AI is very very bad and anyone complaining about it is helping the game. Whiteside shot it down like it was nothing.

So much this. I'm amazed at how much people can talk, yet manage to say absolutely nothing.

(And with a ranger main, I'm pretty pissed. To suggest that fixing pet AI was--paraphrasing--wanting the class to be OP was mildly appalling.)

Why are we always getting the Over-Arching vision run-down from this guy instead of from Eric Flannum like we did BEFORE beta? His LinkedIn still claims he works there but you wouldn't know it from the way all this stuff has been playing out. I reassert my original theory about what happened at launch:

I didn't mind the host but I also thought the whole thing was pretty pointless. I echo the sentiments about the ranger pet comments (disclaimer I am a ranger "main" - but with five level 80s that doesn't mean much) especially with the comparisons to warriors wanting to dual wield great swords or any other class hoping for some kind of generic change. Ranger pets have never been considered to be where they should be - and we are talking about the core class mechanic. It's discouraging to hear a developer with that kind of attitude, it gives me an incredibly cynical perspective on where the game and class balance stands now and how little transparency we truly have, which leads to so much false hope and unrealistic expectations. I bet if many of us truly knew what little was in store for the ranger's future, we'd drop the class today. Given how little of an idea he has of what's in store for the game's future (lots of talk of wanting to evolve the world and tell a story that responds to players - ironically followed by saying players want things they shouldn't have when it comes to class balance, but no details on how, what or when they plan to implement any of it) I bet a lot of people would drop the game today if they knew how underwhelming the future would be in contrast to these grand ideas they keep marketing.

Most of the interview was just PR spin of what we already know, the rest of it was Whiteside dodging the possibility of giving any meaningful information. I'm happy for the IGN guy who got the interview for his show, but maybe ArenaNet shouldn't send developers to do these things if they aren't going to allow them to say anything or giving any answers of value. I'm sure it's tempting for them to cash in on the increased coverage and free exposure to talk about.

I wish they'd stop giving us PR and marketing spin and start giving us solid changes which make fundamental improvements to systems and features that are curently disappointing. We keep running into trouble when ArenaNet does a bunch of annoying talking about ideas and design goals followed by a reality which is barely recognisable to what we envisioned when we were sold on it. I'd like more real change and real details, I don't care about what they thought it would be or what they wanted it to be, I want to know what it will be. Anything else is a waste of time and setting people up for disappointment.

I normally don't chime in on the hate, but holy shit was that interviewer, if you can even call that annoying prick such a thing, was absolutely horrific and this video really puts a damper on IGN. They've been going down hill in the standards department but that was post Cops/Cheaters G4 bad. To those even remotely curious about watching DONT. Sad to say that the above posters are not exaggerating this time. Utter waste of time. So bad Anet and IGN should issue an apology lol

Some "nerds" are the most extroverted, charismatic, well spoken people I know, and that's among a cross section of all kinds of people that I interact with regularly.

Forget his appearance: in his role as a host, he sucked. Tried too hard to emanate... whatever famous host he might be trying to emanate, and just killed the interview, and I'm NOT picky about these things, he was just horrible, and whoever is responsible for putting him in front of the camera made the dead wrong call in doing so.

Like Chronos12360 above, I don't usually post such things, but this guy just stuck out like a sore thumb.

I'm an opinionated son of a gun! Feel free to visit my blog, "Tales from the Void: Adventures in gaming whilst siezing Saidin"http://omedon.tumblr.com/

Some "nerds" are the most extroverted, charismatic, well spoken people I know, and that's among a cross section of all kinds of people that I interact with regularly.

Forget his appearance: in his role as a host, he sucked. Tried too hard to emanate... whatever famous host he might be trying to emanate, and just killed the interview, and I'm NOT picky about these things, he was just horrible, and whoever is responsible for putting him in front of the camera made the dead wrong call in doing so.

Like Chronos12360 above, I don't usually post such things, but this guy just stuck out like a sore thumb.

Don't get all upset because I insulted nerds. And it's always painful regardless of venue. It's not just his appearance, it's his demeanor. Someone with a honking laugh and obvious lack of physical self-control doesn't need to be hosting any sort of show.

This was less an interview and more a guy deliberately being vague, broad and pretentious because he's under a non-disclosure of a lot of things while some runt of a man thinks "I DID IT! I'M FINALLY ON CAMERA!" and gets over-excited like a pup on Christmas.

ArenaNet. Do it right or not at all. Don't even send your men out to the spotlight if nothing is resolved or answered. I'd rather you posted a 3 second video of him saying "No comment." At least that would have saved me the other 14 minutes 57 seconds of him saying, in broader terms, the exact same thing.

"you guys dont have the traditional mmo set up" YES THEY *ING DO
"theres no real like go out and do this this this and find these people and collect these many pies" YES THERE IS AND LOTS OF IT TOO
"you go off and then you run into other players doing the same thing" LIKE I DONT KNOW MAYBE A *ING MMO

1. Wanna be Drew Carey... without the sense of humor.
2. 3:30 in... this host is awful.
3. Wow, that was painful. They'll be looking more at pet/minion AI allegedly, pretty much nothing new. I think Chris (Anet guy) was relieved to be done with that.

I watched so you won't have to. If you don't you'll learn as much as I did.